Kicking off this narrative is the 924, the car that set out to be a replacement for the humble 914 as the new entry point into the Porsche lineup. Similar to the 914, the 924 was intended to be a fancy VW at first, with active involvement from folks at Audi who were given manufacturing responsibilities for this new sports car format.
For VW it was supposed to be a flagship and even Audi was looking to get its hands on this platform. Porsche was merely a consultant on this project up until VW pulled out of the deal at the very last minute, allowing Porsche to get its hands on a completed entry-level sportscar which would perfectly complement their upcoming V8 GT, the 928 (hence the “924” name, as it was a 4-cylinders counterpart to the 928). So Porsche took ownership of the project from VW at the cost of 40 million Deutsche Marks with one caveat, that it will continue to be produced at the Audi factory as per the original agreement, and started selling the car as is, with a Porsche badge on it.
Fun fact the 924 was the first Porsche to offer an automatic transmission option which shows how keen Porsche was to cater to an all-new demographic and expand their customer base, and even though this move was criticized by many purists, however, in the larger scheme of things, it was one of the wisest decisions since the majority of their sales and profits today are from front-engined cars.
Porsche was happy to take over the project because it desperately needed a cheap, mass-market car to bump up Porsche sales which were witnessing a steady decline in the early ’70s and then Ernst Fermin steps in, who was the Chief Exec at the time and he (along with a bunch of boring suits and tie people I assume) were imagining a front-engined future for Porsche and wanted to do away with the 911. To no one’s surprise, when Mr Porsche himself heard about this, he removed Ernst Fermin [well officially he stepped down but we all can imagine how that went] and in his place came Peter Schutz who wanted to keep both the rear-engined 911s as well as focus on the Front engined cars. Now that’s the guy they needed.
Talking of declining sales, the 928 which is Porsche’s first flagship front-engined car, came into existence within a year of the 924’s launch and believe it or not, it set out to replace the 911 in the 70s when the sales of the flagship 911 had started to dip. Porsche engineers and execs were under the impression that they had exhausted the potential of the rear-engined platform and I am almost certain if they are still alive, they feel pretty foolish.
The other reason for this lack of faith in the Rear-Engined platform originated from Ralph Nater’s book “Unsafe at any Speed”. This infamous book was another cause for concern when it came to the 911’s famed rear-engined layout which not only destroyed the humble Chevy Corvair’s reputation, it also lead Porsche to shift their focus from rear-engined sportscars to front-engined Grand tourer.
FYI Mr Ralph is the reason why the new Golf GTI weighs half an elephant more than the OG GTI which felt like a real golf cart. His book plays a major role in reshaping the way people look at safety regulations, and that consequently puts a damper on engineers and designers creative freedom.
I mean yes car’s are safer than ever before but imagine driving a first gent rabbit with a current GTI engine and transmission with no ESP or Traction Control, wouldn’t that make it a hoot and a half? Imagine if cars like the TVR Tuscon were still around. Do you know why they aren’t? Yup, it’s all thanks to Nator. Thanks to Ralph, you recked it with your book.
Rant aside, let’s get back to the topic at hand, the entry-level Porsche.
The 944 was a humble Porsche and calling it an evolution will be a stretch, in reality, it was a slightly improved and upmarket version of the 924 (a more Porsche version of the 924) made with the sole intention of replacing the 924 in the Porsche lineup which it did after being sold alongside the 924 for a couple of years as it was being faced out, and apart from the front-engined layout and the basic formula, it shared nothing with the 928.
A retake of this spritely little icon would start with a new engine, but before we start, I would like to get one thing out of the way, that the 944 was never really intended to be a full-blown grand tourer, it was the flagship 928’s duty to take the wealthy on cross-continental journeys and boy was it perfect for the job. The 944 sat at the opposite end of the spectrum and was intended to be an affordable everyday Porsche. Emphasis on “every day”.
Porsche intended this to be most people’s only car. Sticking to this idealogy, it needs to be versatile. But the 924 got a lot of hate for “not being a real Porsche” because the engine was essentially an Audi unit in the early cars, they ended up putting a 2.5L motor in the 944, which was still an inline-4 but it was in all respects a true Porsche motor. A motor so good that they ended up slamming it in the 924 for the rest of its life cycle after they ended their contract with Audi, and called it the 924 S and this made it quite the bargain in Porsche terminology. The 924 S was so good that it turned out to be faster than the newer, wider and more expensive 944.
The 4-cylinder powerplant was pretty good for the time but it lacked the punch that one expects from a modern grand tourer or a canyon carver.
Even for the time, you could get a butch American V8 with twice the power for the same money. Even in its range-topping turbo S guise, the 2.5L turbo-4 was only good for 250 hp, and it wasn’t shabby, but it suffered from hysterical amounts of turbo lag, a trait which made it far from ideal for city driving or even canyon carving since it required a fair bit of practice to keep it in boost and make the best out of that engine, but in the hands of the right driver, it was a seriously fast tool.
So the best replacement for our retake 944 would be the VR6. Apart from being a smooth and fairly vibration-free unit, it is famous for its effortless power delivery, which makes this motor a perfect contender for a GT car and let’s face it the current crop of 16-year-olds barely understands what real turbo lag is thanks to fancy twin-scroll turbos and all sorts of anti-lag trickery which is a common affair with modern cars. The VR6 was a staple for the VW group for decades, which makes it a suitable candidate for a VAG car and at the same time pays homage to the 924’s Audi and VW roots. Another reason is that the VR6 would be the only engine that could fit in the 944’s relatively cramped engine bay without having to modify the firewall or fiddling with its proportions.
But before this seemingly perfect solution can be administered to the 944, one would need to address another major shortcoming that goes back to its VW roots, its driveshaft which was about as fat as its radio antenna. This was also the reason why this platform never managed to house a V6 or Audi’s popular Inline-5 because the driveshaft was just too week. But Porsche had limitations like production costs and torsional rigidity rising from the limited selection of materials available at the time which, in theory, can be fixed by a custom carbon fibre driveshaft.
This setup mated to a Getrag 6-speed or a modern Porsche manual from the 718 would make it a perfect retake or even a 7-speed DSG would in fact help improve the weight distribution with a slightly heavier rear-end, like the original.
As for the suspension, the 944 had a pretty good setup from the factory, especially the Turbo and many owners have opted to upgrade their basic 944s and 944 S2’s with the factory Turbo suspension, which is a great option for those who want to keep it as close to stock as possible, but a heavier engine comes with its own set of challenges. So in an ideal world, an aftermarket like an adjustable setup from KW suspension would make it to the top of my list but remember it’s a very fine line that separates a perfect and intuitive suspension setup from an overdone pile of trash.
The 944 was an underrated icon of its time and was near perfect from the get-go, however, a 6-cylinder Porsche just sounds right!